Data Citation Index (DCI)
The Data Citation Index on the Web of Science provides descriptive records for data objects and links them to literature articles on the platform.
Records in the Data Citation Index (DCI) are intended to:
provide attribution for a data object to the person(s) and institution(s) creating the data
provide a standard form of citation for each data object to encourage citation (the format of the data citation recommended follows the DataCite guidelines)
track citations and reuse of data in the scientific literature and provide bidirectional links between research articles and the data they use or generate
provide a means to discover data associated with research publications.
ARDC has developed a process that enables Research Data Australia (RDA) records to be transformed to a Data Citation Index (DCI) compliant format and harvested to the Data Citation Index. This means that individual institutions are able to have their records indexed by the Data Citation Index without having to develop their own feed. All repositories indexed by the Data Citation Index must meet Clarivate's requirements for longevity/sustainability, activity (adding new material), editorial practices and quality, and must qualify as a data repository.
In order for Clarivate to provide appropriate attribution, certain metadata are needed to create a data citation which can be matched to a data citation in the literature and which provide access to the actual data in the repositories to allow reuse and citation as part of the data lifecycle. Research Data Australia contributors who are able to provide these metadata and fulfill the Data Citation Index selection criteria, may be eligible for inclusion. In return, if selected by Clarivate for inclusion, the contributor will have access to the Data Citation Index to enable them to review the implementation of their data. For some contributors this may require optimisations to their RIF-CS metadata before a production harvest to the Data Citation Index can be established. Clarivate will work closely with you to ensure correct representation of repository information as all material deposited in a given repository is linked to that repository record, thereby raising the visibility of the repository within the Web of Science and positioning data as a first class research object, alongside the scientific research literature to which they relate.
Broadly, in order to be accepted into the Data Citation Index, contributor records in a Research Data Australia data source:
must be able to provide minimum required metadata required to validate against the DCI schema
should describe data objects held in repositories under the control of the Research Data Australia contributor (if necessary, inappropriate records can be "tagged" for exclusion from the harvest to DCI)
should describe data collections, datasets or software - see RIF-CS Collection Type
must meet the Data Citation Index repository selection policy.
For Research Data Australia contributors interested in participating, ARDC has developed a mapping from RIF-CS to the DCI schema and a simple web service that enables Data Source Administrators (DSAs) to preview records in their data source that have been transformed to the DCI metadata format (XML output) using the mapping. Contact services@ardc.edu.au once you are ready to proceed with engagement with Clarivate.